Xanderpocalypse
by wlfgang213
Summary: YAHF and Ship of the Line. Xander dresses as something powerful for Halloween and ends up finding a life for himself that he never expected. *Now posting Rewrite.*
1. Chapter 01 - Halloween Causality

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, anything from Marvel Comics, and any other possible crossovers that will show up later in the story.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" trademark and copyright 20th Century Fox Television, Mutant Enemy, Kuzui Enterprises, Sandollar Television, and Dark Horse Comics, Inc. Fox apparently owns all the mutants, including Apocalypse.

AN: I know... I'm sorry that I was away for so long. For what it's worth, I haven't stopped working on this story, even if I've had to do a huge rewrite to fix a plot hole that only became apparent after some time away. It's kinda funny though, in attempting to close one big plot hole, I actually managed to create five more. It's okay though, it's all fixed now. Still, be glad because the original fix involved bringing a character, (Kennedy *shudder*) into the story at the beginning instead of season 7 and now I don't have to do that.

I've put a lot of work into this story and I have no intention of quitting anytime soon. Enjoy the return to Xanderpocalypse..

Chapter 01 – Halloween Causality

Returning to where his life truly began for the first time since his endlessly long adventure began felt less like coming home than Xander Harris had expected. He thought that coming here would feel like the completion of some long mission, the goal being to reach home, but as the sapphire blue Jaguar XJR passed the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign, he just felt out of place. How could he explain to those that called him friend what had really happened that Halloween night or how long it had been for him since he saw them last? Every time he thought about it, he couldn't find the words. It was funny as he had, after all, been thinking about it for a really long time. They wouldn't understand and they wouldn't believe. He could of course prove everything that had happened to him, but any action he took that made him seem anything other than normal would cause them to lash out.

'Joy, this will be fun.' he thought to himself as the car round the corner. 'Who would have thought that time travel could be such a pain?'

Xander was pulled from his inner dialog by the flash of red hair and a cry of pain coming from the mouth of an alley they were passing. The screech of the brakes was loud in the night as he forced the car to a stop, the passenger thrown forward against her seat belt. Before she could do more then cry out in surprise he was out of the car and running into the darkness. He quickly fell upon the vampire that held a red-headed woman to the wall and was drinking from her neck. A flash of a blade and the dust, all that remained of the demon, raining down was only a momentary distraction as Xander took hold of the woman, pressing a hand to her wound to staunch the bleeding. She was probably another victim of the Halloween spell that turned people into what they dressed as that night, judging by the skin-tight red and gold costume of Marvel comic book character Jean Grey. Being that close he was able to easily make out that the woman below the red wig was Jenny Calendar, the computer teacher of Sunnydale high.

Consciousness was a fleeting thing for the woman, awareness coming and going in fits. The first thing she became aware of was a dark haired man holding her upright and tending to her wounds. Darkness enveloped her for a bit only for her to awaken once more in the back of a car being driven by a different, though familiar looking man who was speaking to a red-haired girl of indiscriminate age in the passenger seat. Her head felt like it was full of cotton and she could only make out snippets of what they were saying.

"-way to soon, she shouldn't be awake yet." She could hear the man saying.

"She's your friend. What are you going to-" the girl replied, though her question was incomplete as the darkness again descended on Jenny's mind once more.

The movement of the car stopping drew the teacher back to consciousness a second time.

"-I'm taking her in to the others." The familiar looking man was saying. He suddenly glanced at her lying prone in the backseat, she blearily blinking up at him. "Damn, she woke up again. That costume really did a number on her."

Unconsciousness once more swept Jenny's mind away. She woke a third and final time to find herself sitting on the ground and leaning against the side of a building with another dark haired male standing over her, only this one younger than the others.

"Mrs. C? You okay?" the boy asked, gently checking her for signs of injury. The woman snapped fully awake with a start and reached up to her neck, only to find a bandage taped over the wound.

"Xander?" The woman questioned, "What's going on?"

"I don't know. I found you here on my way into the school." She looked around and found he was right, the building she was leaning against was the main entrance to Sunnydale high school. She tried to think over what had happened, her mind coming up with a vampire attack, then a dark haired man... no, two dark haired men and a red-headed girl in a car. The teenager took hold of her arm in a surprisingly firm grip and helped her to her feet. She leaned against the building for a moment to let the vertigo pass before standing fully upright.

"I'm okay."

"Good. We should get inside, the others are probably waiting for us."

"The others..." Jenny muttered, her mind flashing back to the words of the man in the car. 'I'm taking her in to the others'. That was the moment when it hit her why the second dark-haired man in the driver's seat looked so familiar. It was Xander... only older.

Once she was stable on her feet, Xander led the way into the building and directly toward the library where they found four teenagers sitting at the main study table.

"Xander!" Cried a targeted red-haired missile moments after leaping from her chair and speeding across the room only to slam into his chest hard enough to knock him back a step. "I was so worried when everything went wonky and there were vampires and you disappeared and I thought they brought you back to their lair and you were dead or... or turned and they were drinking you like a smoothie and then you would come back to eat us all and we would have to kill you and oh it would be so terrible! So where did you go?"

"Hello, everyone!" He called to the rest of the room after Willow, his very first friend, stopped her flow of unedited thought. Despite his earlier feelings of unease it hit him just how much he'd missed her, missed all of them. As soon as she let go he was pulled into a rib-cracking hug by the blonde vampire slayer Buffy Summers. She wore a full Victorian-style evening gown which was opposed by Willow's manner of dress, that of a leather skirt, knee-high matching boots and a red top that was cut low and exposed her bare midriff, very unlike her usual attire.

"Man am I glad to see you are okay." His oldest male compatriot Jesse McNally said from his place at the study table. "I was worried I'd have to find a new best friend."

Xander snorted, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "You'd be stuck as the only guy amongst a group of girls... oh the tragedy."

"Don't even think it dweeb-boy." Cheerleader and self proclaimed 'queen of the school' Cordelia Chase, who wore a skin tight cat costume, ordered from her seat across the table. "Your dirty fantasies wouldn't happen if you were the last guy on the planet let alone in this group."

"Oh yes, thank you for that." Replied Rupert Giles, the school librarian and undercover Watcher who was assigned to train Buffy in the ways of vampire slayage, as he exited his office. "Good to know I rate one of the girls, as it were."

"Don't worry Giles," Xander said, "you only don't count because it's the nature of a teenager to avoid thinking about a parental figure like that."

"Quite." The older man replied with a slight smile. "Mrs. Calendar? I suppose you got caught up in this too?"

"I did, I was Jean Grey as the Phoenix." The self-proclaimed 'techno-pagan' stated, causing Xander to quirk a metaphorical eyebrow in confusion, despite already being aware of this information. He had been dressed as Apocalypse, a mutant also from Marvel comics, a character who was ungodly powerful in many ways including telepathy. While in control of the teen's body he had done a broad scan of the area and had not found any other mutant, and though unlikely, it was possible that Jean had somehow blocked her mind from Apocalypse's detection. This would bear more looking into.

"So what happened?" He asked. "Why did we all become our costumes?"

"Ethan Rayne happened." The librarian answered. Ah, Xander thought, a name from Giles' past. Of course he couldn't show that he was aware of that fact, so he put a confused expression on his face.

"Sorry, but who's that?"

"He's the guy who owes me money." Cordelia complained while pointing out a wide tear in her costume, "There's no way that Party-town will give me my deposit back."

"He's the guy who sold us the costumes." Willow answered, ignoring the cheerleader's rant.

"The very same." Giles continued, "He is a Chaos mage of ill repute. He performed a spell turning everyone who bought their costumes from his shop into the characters they dressed as/ Fortunately, I was able to track him down and put an end to the effect. Speaking of which, where did you go after the spell ended?"

"The whole thing really freaked me out, being trapped in the back of my own head as someone else ran around in my body." he explained before slipping into a smoothly delivered lie, "I wanted out of the costume as quickly as I could, so I ran home and changed. Sorry for worrying you all."

"It is understandable, just next time please let us know that you are safe before running off."

Xander nodded. "I will."

"Yeah and next time don't leave us to take care of all those brats on our own." Cordelia demanded.

"Yes Queen C." Xander replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. It surprised him how easy he found it to fall back into the pattern of verbal dueling with the snarky girl. "As you wish Queen C."

"Quite." The tweed wearing man muttered. "Mrs. Chase's issues aside, have you had any left-over side effects from tonight's madness?"

Over the years Xander had spent a lot of time thinking about this moment and knew that between Buffy's 'slay it first' mentality and how much Willow worried about him, there was no way he could tell them that he still had all the powers of the Celestial-technology enhanced mutant 'Apocalypse'. They'd want Giles to find a way to remove his abilities and all he had learned about magic over his long life told him it would probably kill him. At least Jessie would think it was cool and would probably be upset it hadn't happened to him as well.

"Nothing." Xander lied, smiling at his friends. "Just some vague memories... and a strange hankering for cheese."

"Why did you lie?" Jenny demanded later, pulling Xander aside after the group had broken up for the night.

"Sorry?" Xander asked with a look of confusion on his face.

"When they asked if you kept anything from Halloween you lied."

He quirked an eyebrow, "I did?"

"Yes!" the woman nearly cried. "I don't know what you dressed as, but I know that was you in the car. How did you do it? Was it a glamour? You made yourself look older. And who was the other man that saved me?"

"Okay... I have no idea what you are talking about." He stated with a chuckle. The computer teacher rolled her eyes.

"I know what I saw. I don't know why you lied to them, but you can tell me."

Xander's lips formed into his signature goofy grin. "Sorry Mrs. C, but there's nothing to tell."


	2. Chapter 02 - Bound in Blood

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy the vampire slayer, the mutant Apocalypse, The Harry Potter universe, nor any other copyright material I play with or reference in this story. In fact, I read an interesting legal case that said that in fanfiction, basically every time someone says 'I own the original characters' they are wrong. If an original character can't exist as you wrote it outside of a copyrighted world, then the character belongs to whoever owns that copyright. Meaning that if you write an original character, but it's a bumpy-headed vampire that turns to dust when staked, it still belongs to Joss Whedon. Therefore, although 'Blinky' is an original character of my creation, she is a house elf and therefore belongs to JK Rowling.

AN: Xander's 'battle form' is played by Adrian Paul during the highlander years.

/Telepathic conversation./ I tried using pointed brackets but the website deleted them.

Random references in this story: Doctor Who (the series), Now You See Me (the movie), Highlander (the series),

Chapter 02 – Listen to Me (or Learning the Ropes)

Xander looked at the bar he held over his head as he lay on the weight lifting bench. Doing a quick calculation, he realized that he was pressing over six hundred pounds. He didn't feel the need to breath out as he lowered the bar until it almost touched his sternum then pushed it back up, his arms weren't shaking, there was no pain and he wasn't feeling any strain. He knew he couldn't get anything from it other then a form of stress relief, but he still liked to work out. He needed it especially more this morning, his stress arising from dealing with his friends. Snarking with Cordelia aside, he was trying to be the goofy laid back guy they knew, but it was hard because he had grown and changed a lot in the time he was away. That, along with hiding the truth about his past and his powers, was taking a toll on him. Siobhan was the only one who knew the truth, though Jenny Calendar had a suspicion. After their confrontation Halloween night she acted like she believed him when he told her that he hadn't kept anything from the spell, but she was still constantly watching him when she thought he wasn't looking, waiting for him to do something unusual. He was having to be extra cautious around her.

He set the bar down on its holders, the bench creaking ominously at the enormous weight, then sat up and glanced at the wall clock. He was currently in the home he shared with Siobhan and he was currently late for school. Sometimes he wondered why he was continuing the farce of going to high school when there was nothing they could teach that he didn't already know, but it was the prime time he spent with Buffy, Willow and Jesse. It also helped that it was built directly on top of the hellmouth which needed to be monitored.

In minutes he was looking down on the town of Sunnydale and decided that he'd never get tired of this. Flying was one of the few things in life that still gave him real joy. Being able to fly was definitely the best part of his powers. When he had first awoken as a mutant and discovered his shapeshifting ability, it had taken a long time to figure out how to fully transform his body. He had begun by turning into replicas of his friends from Sunnydale, people that he could picture in his mind even with his eyes closed. As shifting became easier he started branching out, changing into replicas of some of the people he had met more recently. After that he started making people up, completely original forms. Eventually he had progressed to changing his limbs into different weapons, including a sci-fi looking blaster, a sword, and a large shield. Turning into a bird, something entirely inhuman, had taken far longer but he had been sure that he could do it, believing that there wasn't much of a limitation on Apocalypse's powers. Of course, learning to control a body with wings proved to have it's own difficulties.

Still gliding his way toward the school, Xander turned his mind to more recent events, those of the previous night. After returning to Sunnydale, he had taken to patrolling the town at night and killing things that would kill humans. For hunting, he had transformed himself into a male figure that was in his thirties, chiseled without being overly muscular, had long black hair tied back in a ponytail, tanned skin and Eastern European features. He wore a dark blue dress shirt over black cargo pants and boots under layered robes of black with silver refinements. The robes were embroidered with runic symbols that glowed emitting soft blue light. The magical script caused a number of effects, one being a shadowy concealment under the hood making it difficult to see the wearer's face.

This form had heightened senses due to his enhancing them using the control he had over his own body to give himself night-vision, enhanced far-sight, hearing, and sense of smell. That enhanced hearing was how he'd detected his latest target, the newborn vampire that was attempting to dig itself out of it's grave. He stood over the cemetery plot as the creature dug and when it was half way out he reached down, grabbed the creature by the neck, and lifted it out of the ground.

"Ahh!" the vampire croaked, shocked at it's first sight being a dramatically dressed hooded man. "What the hell? Who are you!?"

As the vampire had been attempting to unearth itself, Buffy the Vampire Slayer had been watching from a distance. She had caught sight of the hooded man upon entering the area and had followed him waiting to see what he was up to. When the stranger easily pulled the vampire from it's grave, she concluded he was beyond human-level strong, probably a demon.

The being, that she didn't know was Xander Harris, had one hand around the vampire's neck while gripping it's shoulder with the other. One sharp application of sheer brute strength left the creature as dust slowly falling to the ground. She stared wide-eyed at the obvious power of the hooded being and hoped it wasn't that good of a fighter before she plucked up her courage and charged, stake in hand. She leapt forward, her leg coming up for a flying kick, but it proved useless. Moving faster than her eye could follow, the hooded man stepped aside, grabbed her ankle, and flipped her over in mid-air, holding her upside down off the ground. Her slighter height proved to be a disadvantage here.

Speaking in a smooth voice with a just a hint of an accent she didn't recognize, he spoke. "Do not worry slayer. You aren't evil, I have no quarrel with you."

With that, he gently lay her on the ground and then stepped back. Crouching slightly, he leapt upward using his telekinesis to propel himself off the ground, levitating for a moment with his arms out for dramatic effect before raising them above his head and shooting away into the sky, the slayer watching in amazement the whole time.

He pulled his mind back to the present as he banked his feathered wings and glided on the thermals towards hellmouth high. This was the first time he had flown over the school so he scanned around for a clear place to land. After spotting a hatch on the roof of the science building, he decided it was the best place. He tilted his right wing and angled his tail feathers, which caused him to bank left towards the selected building. Upon landing, he shifted back to his human Xander form (luckily he had adjusted to thinking about his natural face as just another form long ago). The access hatch was sealed from the inside with a heavy padlock, which he easily twisted off using his powerful telekinesis, before mounting the ladder within. He discovered it descended into a supply closet, through which he exited into the school proper.

He glanced around as he emerged, to see if anyone noticed him coming out of the closet, in a literal sense, and headed over to the library where he found Willow reading a textbook while Jesse seemed to be aimlessly doodling on a notepad. It was good to see Jesse alive and well. The memories of his friend and blood-brother as a vampire had haunted him for years. The blood-brother thing was the result of a action they had taken as kids, cutting the palms of their hands and shaking to, in effect, bind their friendship in blood. As silly as it had been, it meant more to him after he witnessed his friend's death. The boy being alive again gave them a second chance, one Xander fully intended to embrace.

He had followed his friend's second life prior to returning to Sunnydale and was surprised by one major event that happened to the teen after not being killed: His father was instead. A few months after Jesse was taken into the sewers by Darla and come back out alive, his father had been killed by vampires while working late one night. Xander had been bothered that he wasn't there to prevent it, despite not even knowing it was going to happen and had come to Sunnydale in a form no one would recognize to attend the funeral.

Originally, after Jesse's death, his family had moved away from Sunnydale and Xander had never heard from them again. Now, Jesse was alive and had a mother and sister to take care of. That was what made him so different in personality compared to what he had been like in the days before his death. Having lost his father and having to care for his family had forced him to grow up a bit. Out of their whole group, Xander suspected that he was the only one who knew of his friend's personal growth. He had noticed that when it was just the two of them Jesse was mature and serious, but around Willow, Buffy, and Giles, the teenager still acted like the aimless girl obsessed goof that he had been prior to his father's passing. In truth, it was not unlike Xander's own act.

"Really, Wills?" He asked, playing his own goofball personality as he slid into the chair next to Jesse, "I'll never understand why you study when you don't have to."

"I already tried telling her that," his blood-brother commented with an exaggerated eye-roll, "She seems to think that there's nothing more important."

"Girls." Xander stated.

"Food." Jesse added.

"Video games."

"Girls."

"I already said that."

"Yeah, but it deserved saying twice."

Xander nodded. "I agree."

"Some of us like to know stuff, Xander." Willow stated exasperatedly, without looking up from the book. The boys just grinned at each other.

"Giles!" Buffy called as she entered the library in a rush, "You here?"

"Goodness, Buffy," the older man stated, exiting his office followed by Jenny Calendar, who had been spending more time with the group since Halloween. "Is everything alright?"

"No, I saw something crazy last night." she said, "I saw a vampire killed by this guy in robes. Like wizard robes, hood and all."

"Goodness." The older man stated, removing his glasses to clean them, a subconscious action on his part to give himself a moment to think. "Can you describe him at all?"

"No. He just wore black and silver robes with a hood up. It was too dark to see underneath, though it did have glowing blue symbols all over it. He also spoke with an accent but I don't know what kind."

"Did he- did he cast any magic?"

"I'm not sure. He was able to fly, but he didn't have wings. He was strong, ripped the head off a vampire with his bare hands. Was also fast, I ran and tried to attack but he caught my ankle when I kicked and held me up off the ground with one hand. Didn't even looked strained doing it."

"How um- how did you escape?"

"I didn't have to." She explained, "He just set me down."

"Did he say anything?"

"He had a really deep voice, called me 'the slayer' and said he didn't want to fight me. 'You aren't evil, I have no quarrel with you'. So... I don't know if it's a demon. I mean demons don't fight evil, do they?"

"So he might be a force for good." Willow spoke up.

"He could have been lying." Xander commented. "For that matter, maybe he wasn't even alive. Could have been a magically animated construct." He rolled his eyes at the surprised looks his friends were giving him. "What? I know stuff."

"Yes well, let's not get complacent," Giles said, returning his attention to his slayer and away from the despondent looking teen, "thinking there's another warrior against the dark until we know more. We don't know his motivations nor the lengths to which this being is willing to go."

"But isn't having another guy killing vampires a good thing?" Jesse asked.

"Well... it could be," Giles replied, "But as I said, we don't know his motivations. I'll go through my books while you are all in class."

As if he were psychic, as soon as he said it the bell rang signaling classes would be starting soon. Jesse spoke as the teens gathered their belongings to head out. "We better go, G-man. See you later."

Ever since becoming Apocalypse, everything involving Xander's mind came easier to him. Even though he didn't have the actual knowledge learned from the original mutant, he did have near perfect recall as part of his transformation, making classes a breeze... except for history where the teacher taught things Xander knew to be wrong. And he would know, having been there for a lot of it.

While sitting in class, trying to ignore the teacher's incorrect explanation about Louis XVI, Xander thought back to the early days after the initial Halloween. In the beginning he had worried about how the Apocalypse costume might have affected his mind, more than just physically, seeing as how it was easier for him to pick up languages and ideas than it had ever been before. Luckily he didn't have the mutant's personality or memories crammed into his head, leaving him to learn and mature at his own pace. It was only the memories of his friends in Sunnydale that kept him sane in the darkest of times.

Finally, the class was over and he was exiting with Buffy and Willow who were talking about Angel kissing some other woman. He had noticed that they were passing a note during class so he'd enhanced his eyesight, changing it physically to be similar to an eagle's so he could see much farther than a human making him able to read it from across the room. It seemed her vampire love interest had spent the previous evening with a female vampire. Well good, the guy was a monster and a coward, with or without a soul, and she deserved better.

The teens sat on a couch in the lounge where they were soon joined by Jesse. Xander grimaced internally as Willow was trying to cheer up their blonde friend who was still anguished about her boyfriend's perceived betrayal. The very idea of loving what was basically an animated corpse sickened him. The ridiculous teen angst was finally interrupted by someone familiar to the slayer.

"Ford?"

"Hey, Summers." the boy said. "How ya been?"

"Oh my god! What are you doing here?"

"Uh, matriculating."

Suddenly Xander's personal alarm was ringing, figuratively speaking. Ford was acting pretty laid back, but his body language spoke of a combination of nervousness and pain. Although being nervous was perfectly understandable given the situation, still felt like something wasn't right here.

"I didn't think you'd remember me." Ford said.

"Who's your friend, Buffy?" The mutant asked, not letting on that he was suspicious about the newcomer.

"I'm sorry. Um, this is Ford! Uh, Billy Fordham, this is Xander, Jesse, and Willow! Ford was my giant fifth grade crush. We went to Hemery together in L.A." She turned back to Ford. "And now you're here. For real?"

Xander listened to the conversation with only one ear, while focusing on Ford's body language. Unfortunately, he didn't give any more telling signs. Xander debated just reading the kid's mind to find out what he was hiding, but chose not to because Siobhan would be extremely disappointed if she found out. She was quite vocal about the human right to privacy and violation of people's minds. It was alright though, he knew there were other ways to get information with just a little more work.

They agreed to meet up at the Bronze that night, before heading their separate directions, Buffy escorting Ford to the admissions office. Later that night, Xander was at The Bronze, the local teen night club, shooting pool with Willow and Jesse. He could easily win with all the experience he had, not even needing to telekinetically manipulate the balls, but didn't want to make them suspicious so he threw the game which was soon won by Jesse. Eventually, they were joined by Ford, who was mostly oblivious to Willow's happy greeting as his body language still screamed that he was in serious pain. A short while later Buffy arrived after which Ford's pain signals were better hidden. It still seemed like he wasn't overly happy to be there until the slayer went to get a drink and started talking to Angel who had been watching her creepily from the bar. Ford observed their interactions, his body language sending out all the wrong signals. Instead of being jealous, he seemed overly excited to see Buffy talking to Angel. Things were just not adding up for Xander and he decided to dig deeper.

They were soon rejoined by Buffy, the vampire following along.

"Hi Angel." Willow spoke up cheerily.

"Hi." he replied rather less gaily. Xander ignored the introductions as he noticed the body language of the slayer and the vampire and couldn't help but grin. Buffy looked extremely irate at Angel while the vampire mostly just looked confused. Confused and slightly guilty. Buffy soon left with Ford, leaving Angel to stand around awkwardly before he eventually left as well.

"See," Willow said after looking up from where she was taking her shot and seeing that Angel was gone. She didn't appreciate the less than pleasant comments the two boys had been making at his expense. "You made him do that thing where he's gone."

"It wasn't us, Wills." Xander replied, "He felt guilty for lying to Buffy yet he has no interest in spending time with anyone other than her. You'd think that if he wanted to get in good with her, he'd be nicer to her friends."

"How do you know what he was feeling?" Willow asked, surprised at his apparent empathetic observation.

"The guy's just an ass." Jesse pointed out, at which Xander grinned and pointed at him in agreement before looking to the only female there.

"His body language. The way he holds himself speaks a lot of things, including self-pity and guilt over whatever he did to upset Buffy. Oh, and don't believe his faked confusion. Trust me, he knows exactly what he did." He took his shot and watched as the balls bounced around the table before continuing. "There's something wrong with Ford. I don't know what it is, but his body language is all wrong as well. I think he's hiding something."

"Like what?" Jesse asked, less surprised then the redhead at their friend's depth. Unlike Willow, who saw everything about Xander through rose-colored romance goggles, he knew exactly what their friend had been going through for the last five years... or so he thought. Things had been bad for teenage Xander ever since his father lost his job on the docks and took to heavily drinking.

"If I knew I'd tell you." The mutant continued, ignoring the thoughts presumably going on in his friend's head.

"Hey, maybe you can look into him, find out what you can using a bit of the computer magic you do so well." Jesse said to Willow. Xander agreed while also deciding to dig into the boy himself after seeing what the girl found. Not to disparage her skills, but Xander was pretty sure he had resources she couldn't yet fathom.

The next day, he and Jesse walked to the school together where they met up with the red-headed hacker before class. After a bit of small talk, the younger male brought up the subject of Ford. "So what did you find out about the new guy?"

"He's not registered in school. Not enrolled at all."

"That's weird."

Willow shrugged, "I did find a local address. We could totally check it out after school."

"Sounds good. Just us though, I think we should wait to tell Buffy until we find something incriminating." Xander added.

"It's funny, Angel said the same thing last night when he came by my bedroom."

"What was Angel doing in your bedroom?!" The mutant demanded, fearing for his friend's safety.

"Ours is a forbidden love." Willow joked, oblivious to his rage which just disgusted him more. He had crossed paths with Angelus many times over the years, though never while looking like Xander so that the vampire wouldn't recognize him after coming to Sunnydale. The experience had soured the mutant to the ensouled demon even more and for better reasons then jealously over Buffy or his all around hatred of vampires for what had happened to Jesse. Speaking of his best friend, the teenager stuck out his tongue, fake gagging at what Willow had said causing the girl to smack him on the arm. As was common, they went by the library to check in with Giles.

"Hey there G-man." Xander greeted.

"Hey Giles." Jesse added while Willow waved.

"Yes, good morning."

"So what's going on?" the mutant questioned.

"It seems that Buffy's friend-" Giles began.

"Ford?" Jesse clarified.

"Yes, him. It seems he knows she is the vampire slayer."

Both boys were surprised while Willow probably thought the whole thing was terrible romantic. "She told him?"

"She denied it. She said that he 'just knew'. Apparently he figured it out after the destruction of the high school gym in Los Angeles."

"That is interesting." Xander commented, rubbing a non-existent beard on his chin, an old habit from the times he had facial hair. Moments later the bell rang causing the boys to scamper away to their individual classes. After school ended, Xander once more found himself sitting in the library, this time observing Jenny Calendar interact with Rupert Giles.

/Billy Fordham?/ Siobhan questioned across their telepathic link, having been updated on current events at the high school. /Sounds like there's trouble there./

/Definitely. He knows she's the slayer and he lied to her about being enrolled in the school. I want to know why./

A few minutes passed while Siobhan accessed Ford's records via the internet in search of anything that may clue them in as to what the boy's real motivations for being in Sunnydale were. Finally she broke the silence with positive results. /Here we go. Medical records to a hospital in LA... oh. Oh, that's not good. He's dying./

/Dying?/

/Brain tumor. I don't know the first thing about reading X-rays, but the images they scanned online look rather nasty. He's terminal, doesn't have much longer according to this. So maybe he came to say goodbye and just doesn't want her to know he's sick?/

/Possible./ Xander agreed. /All the same, I'm going with Willow and Jesse soon to check out the local address she found for him. I'll see what's there and make a decision if I need to do anything about it./

/Good luck./

"So you and Giles?" Xander asked, causing Jenny Calendar to jerk in surprise. They were still in the library and she hadn't realized that he was paying any attention to them. The man in question was currently deep in the stacks shelving returned books leaving her alone with the apparently too observant student.

"Yes, he's... he's sweet. You know, beneath the stuffy tweed coating."

He shrugged, not entirely sure that 'sweet' was the word he'd use, but whatever. "So where are you crazy kids going?"

Jenny grinned, "I'll answer your questions if you answer mine."

The simple raised eyebrow caused the woman to sigh. "Fine."

To say that her date plan was surprising was an understatement. Despite his control over himself forged into iron over his long life, Xander still could barely keep the laughter from bursting out. "Monster trucks? Really?"

"It's something different." She shrugged, "I'm trying to draw him out of his comfort zone."

"Ah, well..." He shrugged, "good luck?"

"Do any of the others know?" she asked with a hint of worry in her voice, something he may not have picked up on if he didn't understand human mannerisms so very well.

"Not yet. The girls obviously think you two are in the middle of a torrid affair... but no, they don't have any actual facts."

She sighed in relief as she knew the teens would be ruthless with their 'old people' humor when they found out and wanted to put that off as soon as possible.

Just after sunset, Xander met up with Willow and Jesse to investigate the address Willow had found for the dying boy. When he met up with them he found them waiting with that bastard vampire. Anger surging through him, his voice came out as a snarl.

"The hell is he doing here?"

"Angel asked to come along." Willow explained, "He's worried about Buffy too. Besides, I think it's a good thing he's here. He can protect us if something happens."

Xander snorted, "What's he going to do, sit around and brood while they kill us? I think we'll be fine without him."

"Okay, well maybe you're fine with running around at night alone, but I'd feel safer."

He was less than pleased that he would have to let the walking corpse anywhere near himself or his friends, but had to unless he wanted to tell them the truth, something he was sure they couldn't handle.

They found out that Ford's address was a club populated by teenagers that idolized vampires, but that didn't necessarily mean that the teen himself wanted to be. Xander knew he needed to dig deeper to find out if the boy had any serious plans for it to happen.

/You're growing soft in your old age./ Siobhan commented across their telepathic link, having been privy to his recent actions.

/I just don't want to jump to the wrong conclusions./ He rebutted.

/I think you just don't want to break Buffy's heart if you don't have to. You're hoping you are wrong and are going the extra mile to prove it./

/I'm just giving the boy the benefit of the doubt./

/He could hear the smile in the girl's reply, I'm glad to see that I'm a good influence on you./

Xander escorted each of his friends home before returning to the club by air, landing on a rooftop across the street from where the entrance was. He lightly grazed the minds of the people within, not probing deep enough to read any of their minds but just enough to identify the fact that Ford hadn't come to the building while he was away. Seeing no activity outside, he dropped to ground level and shifted human, though this time he made himself an exact duplicate of Billy Fordham, even coping the clothing he was wearing earlier that day.

He passed through the alley and approached the outer metal door which had a small sliding window in it, upon which he knocked. The window opened, the person inside taking one look at him before shutting it and opening the door. He passed a second door which stood open as someone was doing some kind of work on the door handle, something that hadn't been going on earlier. Once he entered the club proper, he was quickly approached by a goofy looking teenager dressed in a green velvet cape.

"Ford. Hey, Ford." the guy said, his body language screaming sycophant. "How'd it go?"

"Oh, it uh... it went good." Xander replied, not having any idea what the guy was talking about.

"Good? That's... that's it? That's all we know? Well when are we getting what we want? When are we going to be turned by the Lonely Ones?"

That confirmed what he suspected, they definitely had plans to get turned. The guy in the cape turned away to grab a drink off a nearby table, giving Xander a chance to pick the guy's pocket, quickly checking his ID before slipping it into his own pocket.

"Marvin..." Xander started, in a show of familiarity with the guy.

"It's Diego, man." the guy interrupted, "I keep telling you, it's Diego now."

"Sorry... Diego. Just make sure you are ready. I promise, you'll get everything that's coming to you."

"What about your friends?" the kid asked asked, "The people who came here earlier. Are they joining us?"

"No. They were just here looking for me. They're not relevant to this. Don't worry about them."

After that informative conversation Xander made his excuses and left, dropping 'Diego's' wallet on the floor near the door. He was disgusted by a group of humans that wanted to be vampires. There was no such thing as a good vampire. They all went bad in the end.

He left the alley that contained the entrance to the Sunset club and crossed the street, entering another alley. Once there, he shifted into an owl and took wing, choosing to fly away rather then teleport as he needed the time to think over the facts. One, Ford was a member of a club that revered vampires, the members wanting to be turned. Two, he knew that Buffy was the Slayer. Three, he was terminally ill. Those facts added up to one bad conclusion. After a quick trip home to retrieve the hospital records Siobhan had printed for him he went directly to the high school, choosing to teleport due to the fact he was unable to carry the paperwork as a bird. He approached the library where he found Giles and Jenny sitting at the table sipping tea and leafing through a stack of books.

"Yes, could I help you?" Giles asked, standing from his seat next to Mrs. Calendar. He did not recognize the man, assuming it to be the man Buffy had told him about given the robes matching her story and the shadow filled hood covering his head. The stranger's general air of power put him on edge.

Xander stopped far enough away to leave the man with a buffer of safety, he didn't want to scare him after all. He reached up and pushed the hood back knowing that Giles wouldn't have any hope to trust him if he couldn't even see his face. Jenny's eyes went wide when she realized the identity of the stranger for the first time. It was the man she had seen in that alley on Halloween night, the one who had saved her from the vampire. She had heard about the hooded man that Buffy had met but hadn't connected the two together until now.

"My apologies for interrupting your... 'study session'," the newcomer said, a hint of humor in his voice, "but I've come to deliver information. Your slayer's life is in danger. There is high likelihood her new friend has plans to sell her to a vampire."

"Wait, what? You are referring to Mister Fordham?" The librarian/watcher asked in shock, to which Xander nodded. "How would he do such a thing? Why?"

"He has a terminal illness. The evidence at my disposal has led me to the conclusion that he plans to strike a deal for immortality with a vampire in return for the slayer." He produced the file of hospital records and dropped them onto the countertop. "He is not enrolled in this school despite any claims he has made and has been meeting with a local group of vampire worshipers, delusional teenagers who want to escape their responsibilities."

Seeing the concerned look that the stranger was giving the watcher who had hurried snatched up the papers and was riffling through it, Jenny took it upon herself to answer the unasked question. "Buffy's not with him, she was here not long ago but went home."

"Who are you exactly?" The watcher turned librarian asked, finally looking up from the paperwork. The stranger's bright blue eyes glittered and he smiled sharply. He said only one thing before turning and striding from the room.

"A friend."

The meeting between Buffy and Giles the next day was upsetting for the girl. To find out that her childhood friend was dying of something she couldn't fight was a punch to the gut. She asked Willow to access the hospital records herself to confirm that the hooded man was telling the truth, which she did soon after. Buffy agreed that the strange man was most likely the same one she had seen at the cemetery the week before, though who he was or why he seemed to be helping her was unknown. Now she had to decide what to do about Ford.

After talking with Giles, it was decided that a direct confrontation in a public space was the best way. She was definitely torn. Although he was planning to sell her to vampires, his reasoning wasn't really something she could blame him too much for. He was just trying to survive. As angry as she was about his choice, she still wanted to help him. If there was a way to cure him, she would find it. She was moving through the halls after classes ended that day when she finally ran into him. His nonchalance, commenting on how great of a time he had with her the night before, made her grimace. Finally, she couldn't keep up the act anymore. He invited her out again for that night, saying he had a surprise, which she seized as an opening.

"I don't know... I might know more about what you have planned then you think."

Ford looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Your surprise. You know, your plan to sell me to a vampire for immortality."

"What? I-"

Buffy sighed, frustrated that his shocked look confirmed that what the hooded stranger had said was accurate. "Don't even. I can see on your face that it's the truth. What did you think you were doing?"

Ford had a look of panic on his face for a moment before finally crumbling, the fear turning to anger. "Well what was I supposed to do? I'm dying. I've got maybe six months left and by then what they bury won't even look like me. It'll be bald and shriveled and it'll smell bad. I don't want to go out like that." Seeing the pain on her face, the way she wouldn't even look at him just angered him more. It wasn't supposed to go this way. "I'm sorry, Summers. Did I screw up your righteous anger riff? Does the nest of tumors liquefying my brain kinda spoil the fun?"

Any anger she might have felt was washed away by the fear that was radiating off him in waves. "I'm sorry. I can't imagine what you are going through, but what you're doing is still wrong."

"Okay, well, you try vomiting for twenty-four hours straight because the pain in your head is so intense and then we'll discuss the concept of right and wrong. Getting turned into a vampire is the only way."

"But that's not how it works." She insisted trying to make him understand. "You don't become immortal, you die and a demon sets up shop in your old house and it walks and it talks and it remembers your life, but it's not you."

"It's better than the alternative."

The slayer shook her head not entirely sure she could argue with that. "What about those other people?" Buffy asked, having been told about the vamp-wanna be idiots by Angel, "The ones I heard about at that club. They're not getting immortality are they?"

"Those people are sheep. They wanna be vampires 'cause they're lonely, miserable, or bored. I don't have a choice."

"You have a choice. You don't have a good choice, but you have a choice! You're opting for mass murder here and nothing you say is gonna make that okay! I knew you once, we were friends. What you do to yourself is one thing, even if it's a terrible decision, but you're going to sacrifice a bunch of deluded idiots to save your own life. There's still time to save them... to save yourself." She could see that he was clearly torn and decided to offer an extra. "I'll go with you. To the club, I mean. We'll get the innocents out of there and I'll stay there with you to greet your visitors."

The hope on his face clued her in that he was still planning on getting turned. Internally she snorted. If he thought that she would let that happen then he obviously didn't know what a slayer was. Ford meanwhile was oblivious to her thoughts. He nodded agreeing to her words. He knew she was right, plus if she were locked in there with him she couldn't get away, then once Spike arrived he could turn her over and still get what he wanted.

His plan got shot down when they arrived outside the club and found a tall man wearing a dark hooded cloak waiting for them.

"You're- you're here!" Buffy declared, surprised to see him and also realizing that she didn't even know this stranger's name. He was dressed differently compared to last time. Now he was wearing dark colored clothes under a simple dark gray hooded cloak that he could practically disappear into. She could see more of his face then the last time do to the lack of the glowing runes that were on the robes he had worn previously. The magically projected shadows covering his face was missing, though there was still some shadow thrown by the hood itself.

Xander shrugged and spoke as if the reason for his presence was obvious. "Vampires are coming. I have a job to do. As for you..." He looked to Ford, "You help her and I may be able to help you with your little medical issue. You betray her and a brain tumor will be the least of your problems, I guarantee it."

The simple non-threatening way he said that as if it was a fact, not a threat, chilled the boy to the bone. He didn't even know who the guy was but he obviously knew who Ford was. "Who are you? How do you know about me?"

"Who I am is a story that would take far too long to tell. Suffice it to say, I am here to help... well, help her. If I help you depends on the choices you make."

"You can really help me? The doctors all said there was nothing they could do."

Xander snorted, "Uninformed hacks, they would say something like that. I however have access to other means that current medicine couldn't begin to understand."

Ford nodded feeling a surprising hope for the first time in so long. He led the way down the alley toward the Sunset Club, pushing through doors into the darkened interior. As always, the muted televisions were going and crappy pseudo-goth rock music was blaring from the stereo. There were probably fifteen people hanging out within the club and talking amongst themselves so Ford had to shout over the noise to tell Buffy not to let the door close or they'd be locked in. She chose to stay by the open door keeping watch. The sun was still high enough to light the streets so the likelihood of any vampires showing up was low, but it was better to be safe than sorry. The walls of the alley that the club entrance was in were tall enough to leave it shrouded in darkness after all, making it possible for vampires to sneak up on them.

Xander moved through the room taking a position centrally in the club in a shadowy alcove. Using another of his apocalypse-granted abilities, he telepathically touched the minds of the people around himself, gently pushing them to turn their attention away from him. He wanted to remain unnoticed when the vampires got here.

"Hey Ford, what's going on?" Marvin/'Diego' asked in overly high-speed words as he rushed up to him full of stressed and energy. "Are things happening? When are the lonely ones going to bless us?"

"That's what I'm here about." Ford replied as he moved to shut off the stereo. The sudden silence was jarring in the cement-walled room drawing everyone's attention to him. He took a strangled breath knowing that this could get really bad, a bunch of blissed-out delusional morons who think they're about to be blessed by gods. Buffy's earlier words ringing in his ears, he began to speak.

"Um... I have some news about the..." He grimaced, "lonely ones."

"Is it time?" A blond woman asked. "Are we to be exalted?"

Synchronized eye-rolls from both Xander and Buffy were luckily hidden by the dim lights of the club. Ford himself had to struggle not to do the same. "Uh... no, you're not. Thing is, vampires are not exalted. They're monsters. I have it on good authority that they are just demons that possess dead bodies."

Multiple voices of disbelief and disagreement came from the gathered groupies who refused to accept that everything they believed in and hoped for was a lie.

"It's true." Buffy called out from her station by the door. "They kill you and a demon moves in to take over. It walks like you and talks like you and has your memories, but it's not you. You. Are. Dead."

Xander could see the idiots digging their feet in and knew he needed to slam them with a bit of reality like a sledgehammer. "Do you know what one of the first things a vampire does after awakening? It has your memories and, like humans, they seek familiarity. The problem is a vampire is basically you without any morality at all and with a little demon whispering bad things in the back of their heads. So a vampire goes to visit your loved ones, only now they thirst for blood and have no moral quandary about killing everyone you once cared about. That's what waiting for you if you get turned. Waking up and immediately killing your parents, your siblings, your friends. Imagine the corpses of everyone you've ever cared for and then realize that it'll be your fault if you're here when the vampires arrive. Then again, maybe not. After all, the woman by the door is the Vampire Slayer. Do you know what she does? She kills vampires, that's why she's here. And if you get turned, you'll live all of about two minutes before she kills you too. You may be dead, but hey... you're family might just still be alive. Of course that's assuming she gets to you before you kill them all."

He could see the uncomfortable looks on their faces as they looked between one another, each wanting to leave but each not wanting to break first. Finally one girl muttered about not wanting to kill her sister and headed for the door. Buffy stepped aside, holding it open as the girl exited, the rest following like a herd of cattle. The last person to leave was Marvin/Diego who looked torn. He had proclaimed himself the leader of this group but he would never actually have the confidence to stand alone, in the end he really was just a follower.

Once the club was empty, Buffy looked around before finally letting the door shut and stepping further inside. The three remaining all stood staring at each other for a bit before Buffy collapsed onto a couch and Xander slipped back into the shadows that he had stepped out of to talk to the vampire wannabes. Another touch of telepathy nudged their attention away from him leaving them to entertain themselves for the time being. Buffy and Ford spent some time talking about his medical issues and catching up on the state of things in Los Angeles until after the sunset. While they were talking, Xander had been leaning against the wall with his eyes closed using his powerful telekinesis to, for lack of a better word, 'feel' the world around him. It was something he did almost constantly, thought usually in less detail, as a way to prevent being snuck up on. Still, despite how powerful that particular ability was it was limited at how far how he could 'see', not much more than the about a mile. Beside a series of large mostly empty buildings there wasn't much to see nearby, at least above the surface. Underground was a different story. The earth beneath Sunnydale was a honeycomb of tunnels and caverns, some that seemed to defy the laws of physics, shifting into new positions whenever he looked away. Other sections were somehow blocked, even to him, most likely by magic. Upon returning to town he had thought about sweeping the underground clear of demons but decided it was not such a good idea. There was a high likely hood he would get lost down there and never seen the sun again.

"Incoming." He stated as he leaned even further into the shadows, tilting his head down to lower the hood of his cloak further over his face. "Group of vamps at the mouth of the alley headed this way."

"How do you-" Buffy questioned.

"Feel 'em coming." He muttered softly, the finality of the words signaling he wasn't explaining at the moment. Buffy nodded and moved to the back of the room hoping to draw the vampires inside before confronting them. Moments later the door swung open and in came a group of the walking undead that spread out leaving an open space into which entered Spike, 'William The Bloody' Pratt himself. Xander growled softly under his breath at seeing the bleach-blonde vampire. There was a bit of history between them, second only to that between himself and Angelus. He looked forward to ripping the demon's arms off and feeding them back to him. Unfortunately that would have to wait as the Billy Idol blonde stepped aside allowing his lover Drusilla to enter behind him. The minion vamps spread out around Buffy, the slayer completely outnumbered.

"Well..." Spike drawled in his cockney brogue while eyeing Ford, "you did it, I'm surprised. A suicidal yank managed to capture the slayer."

"Who says I'm captured?" Buffy questioned confidently. "I'm just here waiting for my daily dose of dusting."

"Sorry love, but I think the numbers are a bit on my side this time."

Buffy tilted her head like a puppy not understanding, "You make it sound like I came alone."

Xander rolled his eyes at having his presence announced, taking away any real element of surprise, but took that as his cue to make himself known. Of course, being who he was, he did it with a bang. The fabric of each shirt sleeve covering his forearms rippled as if something were moving underneath them, which in fact there was. The material split apart as if alive revealing two pockets, not in the shirt but within his very arms, out of which slid a pair of leather sheaths that each held a hand-carved wooden punch-dagger. They were long and thin, only slightly wider than an ice-pick and perfect for slipping between the ribs of enemy vampires. In one smooth movement he crossed his arms at the wrist to pull them clear of their sheaths and lunged forward out of the shadows, dusting the two vamps closest to him before they even realized he was there. The sudden 'swoosh' sound of a dusting vampire drew the attention of everyone in the room. The shocked stillness gave Xander a moment of free movement to re-holster the dagger which sank back into his arm even as he smiled menacingly at the leader of the gathered undead. "Hello William, long time no see."

"The Immortal? Here?!" Spike demanded, furious at the appearance of the one man who had actually made him regret becoming a vampire. "Can't I ever get away from you?!"

"Mmm, my eternal Kitten has finally come home." Drusilla sang in a happy voice. "The stars sing of all the chaos that is coming in your wake. Nothing will go the way they planned."

"Hello again Drusilla." Xander grimaced, his history with Dru a bit different from that of the cockney blonde, "You're looking... rather sickly actually. I heard about Prague. Close call that."

"Mrs Edith warned me that the fires of true believers were coming but the cleansing flames begged me to dance among them."

Xander nodded as he understanding her insane ramblings better than nearly any other. His voice held compassion when he spoke. "I'm sorry that you survived."

"Thank you kitten." Dru replied gratefully. "Greet the the tiny flame for me, will you?"

"Of course I will Dru." The tiny flame was Drusilla's name for Siobhan, given the girl's very red hair.

Spike was beyond jealous of the obvious emotion in his lover's voice as she talked to the bastard that had done such... things to her. "Enough of the flappin' gums. What are you lot waitin' for? Get 'im!"

At his urging, two of the minion vamps charged, one of which leapt onto Xander's back trying to take him down while the other swung a punch toward his face. The shapeshifter leaned back, dodging the swing before bending, flipping the vampire clinging to his neck forward, over his head into the one in front of him. He slammed his foot down on the neck of one vamp which snapped with a loud crunch, even as the second was back on its feet. He grabbed the demon by it's throat, his fingers lengthening a bit to get a better grip, before pulling it into a choke hold where it's neck was under his arm. More vampires rushed to fight him and he began to move like his body was a fluid, the vampire held under his arm and struggling the whole time. The fight was short, Xander's trained style winning out easily over the vampires who were all street brawlers. After watching their fellow minions get beat, many lying broken on the ground yet still 'alive', a few decided they'd rather take their chances with the slayer. At least she killed them quickly while it looked like this guy was just playing with them. Their thoughts were proven as the fight wound down leaving Xander standing among multiple groaning broken vampires while Buffy stood before piles of dust, wooden stake in hand. Finally he looked down at the vampire still struggling under his arm with a surprised look upon his face as if it just occurred to him the creature was still there. He shrugged at the slayer before nonchalantly snapping its neck, dropping the temporarily paralyzed body to the floor. Buffy was somewhat surprised by the casual brutality.

Part of his clothing ripped open again and formed a pocket within his body, this time in the left shin. A sheath holding something with a short leather wrapped handle slid out from within. He lifted his leg so he could grab the handle, pulling out a spear that was quite a bit longer than should have been able to fit inside his leg, let alone inside the sheath.

"How did that even fit in there?" Buffy wondered aloud, to which Xander grinned.

"It's bigger on the inside."

The spear was about four feet long, made of the same wood as the daggers, and ended in an extremely sharp point. He proceeded to stab the downed vampires one by one before returning the implement back to it's sheath. The holstered staff then sank back into his leg which one again settled to look completely normal with no sign there even was a weapon held within.

Looking around, he reached up to lower the hood which had stayed up covering his face through the whole fight. "Did you get Spike?"

"No," Buffy replied, surprised to see a chiseled human face and an extremely attractive one at that. He had black hair long enough to reach his shoulders, artfully styled into a sexy windswept look despite having been inside a hood. Buffy was a bit jealous. She knew that if she had been wearing a hood while fighting, her hair would have looked like a rat's nest. He had a square jaw, bright blue eyes and a five o'clock shadow that Buffy couldn't deny looked good on him. "Billy Idol wannabe must have run while we were fighting. Him and Drusilla. Speaking of which, you two looked awfully chummy."

"We slept together once." he said simply. Buffy's surprise was obvious, causing Xander to look a bit embarrassed. "I was drunk."

"He called you... 'The Immortal."

Xander nodded. "He did."

"Why did he call you that?"

"Because I am."

"Wait... you're Immortal?" Her surprise was obvious.

"Yes I am. I am very old and have seen many... many things."

Buffy quirked an interested eyebrow. "Just how old?"

Xander grinned, "Old enough to know better yet far too old to care."

She shook at her head at the non-answer and pushed it aside for the moment, focusing instead on a more important question. "Do you have a name? I mean, you must have a name, right? Everybody has a name."

"Of course I have a name, I have many names. Like I said, I've been around a long time. Can't use the same name forever, someone would get suspicious."

"What was your original name then, your first name?"

"Oh, you're not ready to know that yet. I think it will come as quite the surprise when the time comes."

Buffy shook her head in frustration, "Well I've got to call you something."

Xander leaned his head to the side as he thought about it for a moment. "You can call me... Boros. That will do, it's as good a name as any other."

"Alright Boros, and what kind of name is 'Boros' anyway, what was all that stuff that vampire lady was saying about 'cleansing flames'? It wasn't making much sense."

"That was Drusilla. Her insanity is interesting, not unlike split personalities. It causes a clear divergence between her inner demon and her remaining humanity. The still human part of her understands what she is and that what she is doing is horribly wrong, so that part of her wants to destroy herself to protect the world from her own actions. That bit about the dancing fires wanting them to dance amongst them was her humanity telling her to take action, hence why she nearly died in Prague, she threw herself into the fires. From I've heard it would have worked too if Spike hadn't saved her."

"Oh... so that um, that stuff coming out of your leg and your arms, how's that work?"

"I have complete control over the cells of my body. I can reshape them anyway I want." At that, he held up his hand which lengthened and turned into metal becoming a sword, the slayer then watching as it changed back into a hand again.

"Okay, that's handy." she said, snickering at the unintended joke.

"It is. Even my clothes aren't technically real, they're created by my power, part of my body changed to mimic fabric."

"So you're naked right now?"

Xander shrugged. "Technically, I guess."

Buffy approached the heavy steel door at the exit that was now closed, shut by Spike on his way out. She grabbed the handle and tried to open it, finding it sealed, and pounding on it with her slayer strength didn't make a difference. She stepped back rubbing the fist that she had bashed on the door. "Looks like it's locked."

"Nothing's ever locked." Xander replied as he stepped up to the door. He pressed a hand to the seam where the door met the frame, his fingers flattening until they were almost as thin as a singular sheet of paper, allowing them to slip through the space. On the other side of the door, they wrapped around the handle and twisted, opening it from the outside.

Once they were out of the building and walking toward the mouth of the alley, Ford started to get nervous that he was going to be left behind. "What about me? You said you'd fix me."

"Oh... yeah." Xander responded, acting as if he had completely forgotten. He pulled another item from within his body, this one from the left side of his chest. It was a rectangular mirror slightly bigger than a pack of cigarettes. He held it up so that Buffy could see it. "It's a sort of magic mirror, can be used to communicate like a video telephone. Only, it's a bit... finicky, doesn't like to do what I ask unless I do so a certain way."

He returned her confused look with a slightly embarrassed smile before turning his attention to the looking glass. "Mirror mirror in my hand, I wish to call the Elven land."

"Of course you do dear." Responded a voice of what sounded like an elderly grandmother that came from the mirror. His reflection in the glass vanished, being replaced with a well lit wooden room like that in a cabin. It was furnished simply, with warm colored tapestries and a similarly warm crackling fireplace made from river stones.

"Anyone home?" Xander asked into the mirror. A moment later, a small humanoid being stepped into view. It had light gray colored skin, overly large eyes, and a large bat-like ears.

"You are needing us master?" The creature asked.

"Yes." Xander replied. "Transport for one to Madam Sken."

"Yes master. Blinky will be with you shortly."

"Thank you." Xander stated before the image in the glass returned to being his reflection. He pressed it to his chest where it was absorbed back into his body.

A moment later a sharp 'crack' sound echoed in the alley as the small creature from the mirror suddenly appeared in front of them causing the two humans to jump back in surprise. Buffy lashed out with a snap-kick, her slayer instinct provoking her to react to the sudden appearance of something non-human. Her foot crashed into an invisible barrier that snapped into existence between them. It felt solid yet surprisingly malleable, kind of like kicking a wall of Jello. Again surprised, Buffy stopped attacking and stared dumbfounded at the space in front of herself, carefully reaching forward only to find nothing there.

"What was that?"

"Force field of a sort." Xander replied. "I figured you would attack on instinct. You're not the first slayer I've worked with."

He patted the small creature on it's shoulder drawing her attention back to it. The... whatever it was had large round eyes of a brilliant green, wore what looked like a long, well-tailored tunic with a belt cinched around it's waist, and was bare foot. It had long thin fingers and didn't look overly strong, though Xander knew that to be deceptive.

"This is Blinky. He's a house elf."

"Demon?" Buffy asked.

"No, he's a magical being. House elves are primarily good hearted, they are generally extremely loyal people that love to work and though they do have minds of their own, they can be raised or trained to follow the political or religious beliefs of those they work for."

"So... an elf like from a fairy tale, only smaller. Fairy tale creatures are real?"

"Yes, there are thousands of different kinds, pretty much every fantasy creature you've ever heard of is very much real. Dragons, Goblins, Mermaids, Centaurs, Unicorns..."

Buffy snorted, "Don't tell Harmony that Unicorns are real, she'll never leave you alone till you show her some." She pointed at Blinky, "So that-"

"He. He's a house elf."

"He works for you?"

Xander bobbed his head sideways. "It's a bit more complicated than that."

"Master saves us from bad masters," The creature stated in a squeaky voice using broken English and a slight British accent. "saves our ancestors, gets us free life in house elf village. We works on farms, tends to animals and plants. We helps Master and little mistress when they needs us, we's trys to cook and clean though Master insists that he take cares of hisself."

"You make them call you master?" Buffy demanded slightly offended on their behalf.

"Master and little Mistress says not to." Blinky stated, defending Xander. "They's says they our friends, they not masters, but House Elves need's master."

"House Elves were magically created to be servants, basically slaves. They really don't know anything else, it's their way of life. I give them as much freedom as they will accept, but even that is a struggle. Blinky is the descendant of an elf that was freed... what was it Blinky? Six generations ago?" The little elf nodded in confirmation. "Six generations and they still think they need to serve. It's all they have ever known and they pass their way of life on to their children. As much as it might offend your modern sensibilities, it's not our right to force them to change their way of life or impose our beliefs on them. All I can do is give them as much control over their own lives as they will take."

"I guess." Buffy granted, still not entirely sure, but willing to accept it until she saw some reason to change it. "He said 'little mistress'. Are there more of... whatever you are?"

"I'm not a demon, if that's what you are worried about."

"I wasn't-"

"Sure you were, but that's okay. Demon's are the only non-humans you've ever known. It's habit. I'll have to show you just how much is really out there someday."

"Okay, I guess I look forward to that."

"Good." Xander turned to the elf. "Blinky, this is Buffy and that's Ford. I need you to take him to Madam Sken."

"Yes Master." Blinky stepped over to the mystified boy and grabbed his forearm. "Come along young Master's guest." With another sharp 'crack' they were gone, teleported away.

"Where is he taking him? Who is Madam Sken?" Buffy queried, surprised to find herself not overly worried because she found that she trusted this stranger.

"Your friend is dying. Madam Sken is a kind of Doctor who can hopefully cure him." Xander replied while turning away from the blonde girl and starting toward the mouth of the alley again.

"Will it work?"

Xander turned back to her and sent her a smile that made her heart flutter, "Sure hope so. Anyway, it was a pleasure working with you, Slayer. Till we meet again."

He lightly pushed off with his feet and used his telekinesis to float upward, winking at Buffy before raising an arm above his head and launching into the sky like a missile. At that moment Angel, Willow, teen-aged Xander, and Jesse entered the alley just in time to see the Xander in his 'battle-form' fly off. They had been told by Giles what Ford had planned and immediately headed for the club to help Buffy.

"Who was that?" Willow asked.

"And was he flying?" Jesse added.

"I think he was my new friend." Buffy replied, not noticing the jealousy marring Angel's face. He had after all recognized the man from his time as Angelus. "So what are you guys doing here?"

"We're your backup." Willow answered.

"There's no need." Buffy said, "We handled it."

"Were there vampires?" Xander asked, looking around as if he expected one to jump out at them.

"My new friend and I took care of them. Spike and Drusilla got away."

"So who was that guy?" Xander asked, his voice tinged with a hint of jealousy.

She shook her head, "I'll tell you guys all about it tomorrow." She walked Willow, Jesse, and Xander to their respective houses before heading home herself, escorted by Angel, where she planned to call Giles to let him know she was alright. They could go over the specifics of what happened tomorrow.

Once Buffy and Angel were gone, teen-aged Xander shifted to his combat form, wearing the long hooded cloak the man with Buffy had been wearing earlier, before teleporting away only to appear in the alley across from the Sunset Club. The dress shirt under his cloak rippled, the same small cigarette-pack sized mirror slid through the fabric at the center of his chest which parted like it was a liquid, allowing him to grab it. He placed the mirror on the ground and spoke in a language composed of words that sounded like they slithering off his tongue. The phrase caused it to expand into a three-foot wide leather and wood steamer trunk, the type carried by school children in England or like an antique footlocker used by soldiers. The mirror was still the same size, now seated in the center of the lid. The leather was inscribed with beautiful scrolling gold and silver designs which, if one were to inspect thoroughly with a magnifying glass, would find were actually thousands of lines of tiny magical runes. They were similar to the ones on the wizard-like robes he was wearing the first time he crossed paths with Buffy while in disguise, yet infinitely more complex. The lid was held closed with two unmarked latches each containing a keyhole. It was the left lock that he pressed a finger to, his flesh sliding outward to become a key to unlock the trunk. Emitting a satisfying 'click' the latch popped open allowing the lid to be lifted. The compartment inside was far bigger than was normally physically possible, the bottom twelve feet below ground and reached by a shallow set of stairs. Xander descended into the large room which had walls lined with a combination of shelves, hooks, and racks each holding different artifacts, both magically enchanted and not, tools, weapons, and clothing items that he had collected during his life. There was also one wall covered in bookcases loaded with the books, guides, and reference materials that he might need while in the field. He strode across the room and stopping exactly two feet away from that small library, a touch of telekinesis releasing a complicated set of latches that were behind one of the bookcases, which swung outward revealing itself to be a secret door hiding a room beyond. This room held only stone pedestals and glass display cases holding a number of magical artifacts, those that were very dangerous while still being useful.

He stepped into the room, stopping before the ward line that was carved into the very floor around one particular glass case near the back of the room. Wards were a type of stationary defensive magic that was used to prevent or alert of entry to an off-limits area, most often used around houses to prevent against unwanted visitors. These particular ones required him to disable them before he could access the item in the case, even though it didn't seem like it needed such serious security. It was just a simple gold necklace after all, but it was in fact terribly dangerous. This single item could cause more destruction than anything else he owned. It was only it's extreme usefulness that even had him carrying it with him instead of being locked inside his personal dark vault back at home. Once the wards were disabled he carefully withdrew the jewelry piece from its case before turning and leaving the hidden room, pushing the bookcase door back into place as he went. After ascending the steps he shut the trunk lid once more and snapped the latch back into place. With another hissed word the trunk shrunk, allowing him to pick it up and set it against his chest in the same spot he had withdrawn it earlier. Tendrils that were composed of the fabric of his shirt and the meat of his flesh grew out, wrapping around it, holding it in place. He slipped the necklace over his head and took hold of the only charm on it, a small hourglass on a spindle which allowed it be rotated end-over-end inside it's frame, which he did two times before settling it to hang against his chest. A slight tingle ran through his body moments before the world blurred around him, lights flashing by at high speed as cars raced past the alley in reverse, their movements a blur compared to usual. The early night faded, shadows once again being projected by the trees lining the road as the moon in the sky slid back toward the eastern horizon, the sun rising in the west. Moments later everything settled still again, the distant clock towering over the city showing it was two hours earlier than it was moments before. He removed the necklace from around his neck and took the time to replace it back into the same glass case within the trunk from which it had originally been removed. He had to reactivate the wards protecting the case because the security on it was deathly important. Personal time travel in the wrong hands could cause catastrophic damage.

Once the wards were back in place, Xander could begin executing his plan. He was due to meet up with Buffy and Ford, the same way he already had in a linear-timeline sense. The man that he had witnessed fly away from that alley while he had been in his teen-aged form earlier had been his future self, the person he was now.

In preparation, he moved over to the part of the room containing racks that were filled with weapons of all kinds, both modern, medieval, enchanted, and those only useful in very specific situations. There were guns and crossbows, normal swords and those made of silver, cold-forged iron, even one that had been soaked in human tears. There were, knives, spears, axes, implements made of bone, wood, silver, and even a knife made of a basilisk fang. There were also much larger items, such as the 'long nine' cannon that was historically used in naval combat, and the more modern fare, like the large Gatling gun that had a heavy strap meant to be slung over the shoulder for support. In front of the weapon rack was a long table where he could disassemble and clean any of the tools of war that needed maintenance.

Moving around the room he armed himself for the coming fight, first selecting a pair of wooden punching dagger in matching sheaths and absorbing them into his forearms for a quick cross draw. A short sword went into a very short sheath that was magically expanded inside so that it could fit a blade that shouldn't have been able to, before being absorbed into his right thigh. An ironwood stabbing spear went into the left shin and finally a pair of throwing knives went into his left thigh before deciding he was ready. Now armed, he ascended the stairs once more. After re-shrinking the trunk, he replaced it into his chest and left the alley. He took up a position across from the steel fallout shelter door that hosted the 'sunset club', and waited for Buffy and Ford to arrive, not that it took long.

"You're- you're here!" The slayer cried, surprised to see him and also realizing that she didn't even know his name.

The next afternoon, once classes were out for the day, Giles, Jenny, and the students were gathered in the library around the table where the watcher asked about Ford.

"He's getting help." Buffy answered. "I met someone last night. The hooded guy that came here to tell you about Ford's plan. He showed up at the club and helped fight the vampires. He was amazing Giles, you shoulda seen him."

Giles gave Buffy a look over his glasses, his eyes telling her to get on with it.

"Unfortunately, Spike and Drusilla got away."

"Yes well, they are the ultimate survivors." The watcher pointed out.

"So um... after the vamps were dead we went outside and he called for this... I dunno exactly what it was, but he said it was a magical being."

Giles removed his glasses to clean while thinking. "A... magical being, did you say?"

"Yes. He called it a 'House Elf'. A weird little guy with big ears, like a bat. The elf thingy took Ford away to be healed. My new friend said he could fix him. I hope he can."

"Did this guy have a name?" Jenny questioned.

"Yeah. He told me to call him 'Boros'. That's a funny name, isn't it?"

"Yes, quite." Giles said, "I will have to research him, see if I can find anything. In the mean time, did you have any concern for your friend when you handed him over to this complete unknown?"

"It's not like we could do anything for Ford. Besides, he helped me and I don't think he would have done that if he was mister evil man. Oh, and he did the coolest thing." Buffy exuded, "He pulled stuff out from inside his body. Like he had a spear inside his leg and knives in his forearms. He said he had complete control over his cells. That he could control them anyway he wanted."

"Strange." Giles muttered, deep in thought, "I have heard of demons that grow natural weaponry from within their bodies, but not any that store artificially made weapons within themselves."

Their meeting was interrupted by the library doors opening and Ford wandering in, the look of confusion on his face showing that he didn't seem to know where he was. Buffy led him to a seat as he slowly came back to himself.

"Ford, you're alright!" She observed thankfully, "How do you feel?"

"I'm... I'm okay... I think." he mumbled.

"How does your head feel?"

"It's fine." he said, a bit of awe coming into his voice. "There's no pain."

"Are you sure?" Buffy asked, before punching him in the face. She pulled the punch a bit, not using her full strength. "That's for trying to sell me and those gullible idiots to Spike."

"Was that really necessary?" Giles inquired.

"I think it was." Buffy answered with a nod. "I couldn't do that before while he was sick."

"What are you going to do with me?" Ford asked, rubbing his jaw and ignoring the fact they were talking about him as if he wasn't there.

"Send you back to LA." Buffy said with a shrug. "No reason to keep you around now that you're healthy. Do you remember anything?"

He thought about it for a moment, "The... the last thing I remember was leaving the sunset club."

Buffy harrumphed noisily. "That sucks. I wanted to know where that elf thingy took you."

"The what?" Ford questioned.

Buffy just shook her head, "Never mind."

After the meeting broke up, Xander stood in the parking lot talking with Jenny Calendar while waiting as Giles locked up the library. Willow was walking with Buffy and Jesse had rushed off to pick up his sister from her gymnastics class.

"So... How was your date?"

Jenny sighed, leaning against the side of her small hatchback. "He hated it. When Buffy called, he couldn't get out of there fast enough."

Xander snorted and had to struggle not to laugh, "I guess the stuffy Tweed goes deeper than you thought."


End file.
